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Tuesday, June 16, 2009

This just may prove to be the longest 22 minutes you'll confront today. "Gunfight at the OK Corral" is a video produced with a star cast, and which, though far too long for what it has to say and exasperating from beginning to end, is nonetheless worth a spin for what it tells us about what happens in an important area when old thinking faces off with the New Mobility Agenda.

We suggest you get comfortable and if you have not yet done your stretching exercises today, this will give you an excellent opportunity to do them as you follow the drama of the presentation.

Let us leave it to Jack Welch, Ms. Welch, and the confident top team of Hertz Rent-A-Car to explain to us what they intend to do to become the dominant player on the world carshare scene in the next three years with their fledgling Connect by Hertzcarshare operation. It is a curious episode, but a good reminder of how very different the new world of public policies and private practices is at time in which the old arrangements no longer make much sense. We all still have a lot to learn.

From our perspective here at World Streets this is no small matter, since carsharing has a key role in the transportation reform process that now needs to be engaged. We call carsharing a "one percent solution" -- which may sound like not much, but it is a critical one percent. So must be ready to learn from anyone who has something to teach us about how to make it work better.

We are posting this to both World Streets and to our expert forum at the WorldCarShare consortium, and invite your comments and observations. Kind thanks to Kevin McLaughlin of the long established and successful Autoshare.comcarshare operation in Toronto for drawing this to our attention.Print this article